Arrest made in QU graduation 'threat'

Staff and wire reports

Updated 12:55 am, Monday, May 19, 2014

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Danielle Shea

Danielle Shea

Arrest made in QU graduation 'threat'

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HAMDEN -- Police said a former Quinnipiac University student who wanted to keep her family from learning she hadn't attended school this year was responsible for bomb threats that forced part of university's commencement exercises to move indoors to the TD Bank Sports Center on Sunday evening.

Authorities received two bomb threats at Quinnipiac on Sunday, Hamden police said Sunday evening.

University spokesman John Morgan said the school received word of a "security threat" about 15 minutes before the 6 p.m. ceremony was to begin.

The first one cited the library, which is next to the University Quadrangle, where the graduation ceremonies for the College of Arts and Sciences were scheduled for 6 p.m. About 5,000 people were seated there, awaiting the graduation of the 425 undergraduate students.

The second call, made to the university's public safety department, said there were several bombs on campus. Police said the caller stated, "You haven't cleared out graduation. That's not a good idea."

Hamden and Quinnipiac police traced the call to a phone in the name of Danielle Shea, 22, of Quincy, Mass.

A short time later, Hamden officers found Shea in the university's TD Bank Sports Complex. Authorities said Shea was wearing a cap and gown.

Shea was arrested and taken to the Hamden police station, where she gave a detailed confession, police said.

She told officers that she had not attended Quinnipiac this year, but that her mother had given her thousands of dollars for her education.

On graduation day, Shea panicked when relatives did not see her name on the list of graduates, police said. She had purchased a cap and gown.

Police said she told them she made the bomb threats seeking to have the graduation canceled.

Shea was charged with first-degree threatening and falsely reporting an incident.

She was held Sunday with bail set at $20,000, and was to appear in state Superior Court in Meriden on May 30.

The College of Arts and Sciences graduation was moved to the Sports Center and rescheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Morgan declined to give details of the threat or how the school became aware of it.